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Henry Farrar

Farrars visit home between Peace Corps assignments

Henry, on left, planting in India

Phyllis Farrar in India

Henry Graham Farrar

August 11, 1946 – December 13, 1969

Henry grew up in Roosevelt, a small, rural farming community in southwest Oklahoma. Upon graduation from high school in 1964, he attended Southwestern State College and Oklahoma State University. He obtained a bachelor’s degree from OSU in secondary social studies education (history) in 1968, and joined the Peace Corps in October of that year.

He served in West Bengal, India, for five months—until May/June 1969. He married fellow Peace Corps volunteer Phyllis Ann in India, riding atop an elephant to a traditional Hindu wedding ceremony. A change in government in India caused the return of Henry and Phyllis to the U.S., where they began three months of training in Bisbee, Arizona, for an assignment in Libya. Their Libya assignment was cancelled in the middle of their training as a military coup led by Muammar al-Gaddafi created a new government unfriendly to the Peace Corps.

Henry and Phyllis received a new assignment to Afghanistan and traveled to Kabul in the fall of 1969.

Within months of their arrival, while riding in a taxicab with four host country nationals, they were involved in a head on collision with a tanker truck. Henry received severe head injuries, and after two days he was medically evacuated to the U.S. military hospital in Wiesbaden, Germany, where he died on December 13, 1969. His wife Phyllis suffered broken bones, dislocated hip, and other injuries, but survived the accident.

At his death, Henry was survived by his parents Ralph Farrar and Isabelle Irene Edmundson Farrar, a sister Mary Frances, and brothers Walter, Ralph jr., and George. He is buried at Rose Cemetery in Hobart, Oklahoma.

– George Ferrar

Henry Farrar was a great friend and my first true love. We were engaged to be married when he decided to join the Peace Corp. Henry had a love of people and a need to try to help people in distress that lead him to this decision. He knew people around the world were suffering and knew that he could make a difference. We obviously, were never married, but he made a difference in many lives in his short life, mine included. I will always remember him fondly.